Fed up!

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Well I am sat here writing this and it is midnight and I feel like maybe I won't sleep again tonight. This ongoing issue with the batteries is really pissing me off and is always on my mind!

I don't think the fact that a storm is coming in is helping with my sleep tonight either! The wind is really getting up out there in the last hour or so, and the forecast on XC Weather (www.xcweather.co.uk) states that overnight, wind speeds will reach 51mph here! It'll continue all day tomorrow too and into the week.

Its strange, but you really are more aware of the weather when you live on a boat. Especially storms! When the wind reaches the 30MPH+ , you can feel it swinging into the boat. i think we are also a bit more worse off than a lot of boaters as we have 3x huge solar panels (the type you have on houses) sitting on the roof on a ball-mounted tilting system we made which means when the winds are up the panels move around and can sound like they're bouncing off the roof! They are safe though as they're also strapped down with security straps.



We had a busy day on Friday with many visitors. Tim from Bourne Boats arrived with our tempered glass shelves for the glass cabinet we had built but we've only got one shelf in at the moment as the other shelf was too big as it hadn't been cut to the correct template size by the glass people. Grrrr. So that means more waiting whilst the glass is shaved so it fits! He also fitted the correct bolts for the door and tested our gas for us as we suspected a leak.

Next, we had a lady measure up for some curtains for the new doors and she's going to get back to us with some samples and prices etc.

After that, we had Ed in who did some electrical work for us earlier this year and who we decided to call back regarding the issue with the batteries as we were impressed with his work st time. Seriously, if anyone needs a good electrician and someone who understands about batteries, heating and a range of other things, check Ed out. (Www.fc-marine.co.uk). He's really fair with prices And will definately put your mind at ease about things too.

Our Smartgauge arrived back on Thursday and we fitted it on Friday ready for ed coming.

He replaced our start alternator as our leisure alternator was on a split diode and we suspected that might be causing the sharp drops in battery capacity we're experiencing every night for the last few weeks. Ed fitted that and tested the batteries by doing a drop test using an electrical meter. The batteries were at approx 97% capacity which is great.

He checked over all the wiring and all that seemed ok too, so no one is sure what could be causing our batteries to drop 10% every hour with just limited things on ,adding up to no more than 10amps!

Last night was still just as bad and we'd hoped that by last night the Smartgauge had re-synced with the batteries. However, tonight has see the percentage only dropping by about 6/7/8% an hour roughly with quite a few things on.... So maybe the problem has resolved itself?!

We will see. In the meantime I'll continue worrying about it! Worrying about the weather....worrying about money, Christmas, jobs..... One thing after another!



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